If you're here, you must be interested in Chow Yun-Fat... Check out my CYF: God of Actors page for more details of Mr. Chow's inescapable greatness.
He's a man for all seasons of cinema, from comedy to drama to high concept actioners. Every time you see him on the screen, he burns a different hole into your consciousness with a fresh aspect of his talent. From the slick, double-gun toting Mark Gor, the character that made his name, to the bittersweet drifter in AN AUTUMNS TALE to the idiot-savant in GOD OF GAMBLERS, and through the myriad portrayals in between, Chow Yun-Fat impresses again and again with the depth and breadth of his ability. Surely no western actor, save perhaps De Niro, has been allowed to play such a range of characterisations in so many successful films? Appreciation of Chow in the east has been such that, financially, he has the ultimate luxury afforded any Hong Kong actor: he can get off the production treadmill and make only projects of his own choice. In the last year, he has elected to appear in such disparate productions as ONCE A THIEF, PRISON ON FIRE 2 and HARD BOILED. In the west, he has been an overnight sensation that was many years in the making. John Woo's gangster movie extraordinaire , THE KILLER, ran to rave reviews in the U.S., and made the names of both its director and star. Chow remains Woo's performer of choice, and the pair were, at the time of this interview, hip-deep in the production of HARD BOILED, a tough cop thriller that Chow describes as "sixty percent action, forty percent acting!" It was on the set of this film that I sat down for a face to microphone encounter with a living legend of Chinese cinema.
If Chow Yun-Fat is proud of his success, he hides it well. Six foot or over, he towers over most of his fellow workers, but never allows himself to be intimidating. He moves around the locations with a familiar easy stride, unhampered by bodyguards, go-fers or production assistants. Despite his huge popularity, the crew seem to regard him as one of their own, just as the rest of the Hong Kong people do. Chow's sweet natured p.a., Mona Ng, chauffered me onto the set, then, having made the introductions, left us to our own devices. With his trademark boyish grin, Chow Yun-Fat offered to show me around the location, which, though supposedly the interior of a morgue, was in reality an abandoned Coke factory. Coca Cola adds life? Not in this case! Having paid my respects to director John Woo and co-star Tony Leung, I joined Chow on a sawdusted carpenter's table and conducted what the man himself claims to be his first ever in-depth English language interview......
FILM EXTREMES: The first film I saw you in that really impressed me was A BETTER TOMORROW, which was produced by Tsui Hark and directed by John Woo. It seems strange now, but Tsui Hark was telling me that, at the time, the distributers tried to convince him to cast someone else as Mark Gor. Why was that?
CHOW YUN-FAT: Because, at the time, they think of Chow Yun-Fat as mainly on T.V. Movie directors don't prefer T.V. actors and actresses because they think the actors and actresses on T.V. have lousy acting! (laughs) Also, another thing, at the time, my box office is not so good, so they think: "Don't let Chow Yun-Fat play the role..."
FE: Ai-yah..!
CYF: (laughs) No, really!
FE: They say on 'overnight success' normally takes at least five years. I know you made many films before BETTER TOMORROW that were not successful.....
CYF: Yes......
FE: In fact, ten years ago I was on the location of one of those films, POSTMAN STRIKES BACK. I was nineteen. It was directed by Ronnie Yu.....
CYF: Oh yeah. We shot in Korea. Was that ten years ago? No, it was '82 or '83, I think....
FE: It seems like ten years! Do you think it was a problem at the time, with regard to succeeding in the Hong Kong industry, that you weren't a kung fu player?
CYF: I don't think so. I played so many roles. I started making films in 1976. At that time, it was mostly blue films. I was a blue film actor! (laughs)
FE: Haam saap films? Really? We're hearing the good stuff today...!
CYF: Yes. At that time the market was not so good, so the directors were shooting mostly blue films. So...mo banh faht, eh? I need the money!
FE: You put all of that behind you with BETTER TOMORROW, which was appropriately titled for all concerned. Who created the 'look' of your character, the coat, the glasses...?
CYF: Some belong to John Woo, some to myself.
FE: Was the character in the script, or did you ass a lot of him while shooting?
CYF: Yes, I added a lot. I gave John a lot of my experiences. I have a god friend. You know Ringo Lam? (The director of PRISON ON FIRE - Ed)
FE: Yes, I met him the other day for the first time.
CYF: We were in the training class together in 1973. A few years later, we signed a contract with the T.V. company together, him and me. In 1978, he emigrated to Canada with his wife. After three years, I went to Canada to visit him. I asked him to come back to Hong Kong to be a movie director, he came back to Hong Kong. By then it was 1980, and I was quite popular in the T.V. series. I took (Ringo) to Bangkok, to Singapore, to Kuala Lumpur for some performances. He enjoyed the trip very much! He thinks it's like a dream! One of his friends became a good actor, and very popular in the Far East. One night, he drinks a lot with the local people. Some of them are gangsters. After a few glasses, he was out of control. One of the gangsters says "You must drink the whole bottle". Ringo says no. One of the gangsters put a gun on the table, and says "You better drink it. If not, you go to the toilet and drink my piss..."
FE: And this same scene is described in BETTER TOMORROW, and used to explain the bond between Ti Lung and yourself...
CYF: Yeah. I told the story to John Woo, and tried to bring this story about my friend into the movie. I think that the structure of reality is always stronger than what you write, what you make up. This had been my real experience....
FE: This idea of comradeship, of heng dai (brothers), or yee hay (chivalry) is at the centre of most of John Woo's better films. Quite often, the bond between the gangsters is more attractive than the relationship between....
CYF: Than the policemen, yes....
FE: Do you think that Mark Gor has become something of a role model for young Triad members in Hong Kong and elsewhere?
CYF: Yes, I think so. So, I tell John that in this movie we must turn it around. It's about the bond between two policemen. Myself, and Tony Leung Chi Wai.
FE: A BETTER TOMORROW was a real trendsetter in terms of style. On element that struck me at the time I first saw it was the way you'd succeeded on making gunplay look as exciting as kung fu used to look in the older films. Before, it was "Bang! You fall down..." Suddenly, you had the double guns and automatic weapons and amazing blood squib effects....Who developed the way in which you handled guns in that film?
CYF: John Woo
FE: I see that Abel Ferrara's KING OF NEW YORK has just opened in Hong Kong. I think the style of that film, and gunplay in it, owes a lot to BETTER TOMORROW and its sequels....
CYF: Yes. So, John Woo is always so proud of himself. He says: "See? This guy in Hollywood copies my films!" (laughs)
FE: There are two sequels to BETTER TOMORROW. Like most sequels, they are not, in my view, as good as the original. Would you agree with that?
CYF: Yes, Yes, Yes....
FE: What went wrong?
CYF: I think John Woo was so excited after part one that, with part two, he overdid it! (laughs) Out opf control! Out of his mind!
FE: I liked parts of the second one better than the whole. I love this thing with the coat. Mark wears the coat and dies in it in the first BETTER TOMORROW, his brother Ken, played by you, inherits it in the sequel and, in the third film, which is a prequel to the first, Anita Mui gives the coat to Mark as a present. However, I think that, in the third film, a lot of people didn't believe that Mui Ying Fong taught Mark Gor how to shoot a gun! Around the time you made the first BETTER TOMORROW, you made your first film with Ringo Lam, CITY ON FIRE....
CYF: I like that film.....
FE: It's a very powerful piece of filmmaking. It was the first time you worked with Danny Lee.....
CYF: Yes. Lee Sau Yin. Danny Lee.
FE: In Hollywood, most of the great screen partnerships have been a man and a woman. With you, it's usually.....
CYF: A man and a man, yes...
FE: The on-screen chemistry between Danny Lee and yourself is very good.
CYF: We tried to get Danny to play this role and he refused. You know why? Because on the screen he's always a policeman! In CITY ON FIRE, he plays a bad guy! But I push him a lot. We rewrote the script so many times to change the dialogue. We try to play the roles like we are brothers. Actually, he is a bad guy with a warm heart. I'm a bad guy, also, but I'm a policeman! I like the two characters....
FE: It's almost THE KILLER in reverse....
CYF: Yes, they're similar....
FE: The difference between Mark Gor in BETTER TOMORROW and your character in CITY ON FIRE is that Mark Gor remains pretty much in control of his environment, while the cop in CITY ON FIRE is an antihero, in that he has no control over his own fate. Is this the difference between John Woo and Ringo Lam? Does John like control and Ringo chaos?
CYF: Ringo belongs more to the human, down-to-earth style. This guy (Chow indicates John Woo busily directing in the background) is more dramatic. More of a romantic.
FE: The characters in John Woo's films tend to be very big. Is it hard, as an actor, to fulfil the demands of these larger-than-life figures?
CYF: I tell you one thing: For an actor, the script, the paper, is only some dialogue. But, through my explanation, my acting, I can make dialogue become the true story. Everyone looks through the screen to see Chow Yun-Fat. How can I attract them? How can I make them believe I'm the hero, that I'm sad, that I'm happy...? I think everything in the script, when it comes to the screen, is nothing. What matters is your heart. When you tell people: "I'm sad. I am happy. Believe me.." Actually, I think movies are a fantasy. Like (snaps his fingers) a dream. You cannot catch it. Cannot touch it. People see you expression, and you show everything inside. That's where the truth is in movies. Not in the script or the story.
FE: Films are about truth, not reality. The trouble with Hong Kong is that, in America, you can, after a certain point, make four films a year, and try to exercise some care in choosing the right four films. In Chinese movies, as soon as you become popular, you have to make film after film. It always amazes me. I used to go to the Chinese film shows every week in England, and one week I'd see you in something quite brilliant, like a John Woo or Ringo Lam film, and the next week it would be something really terrible...
CYF: It's a big problem. I've stopped now. One year, three films. Before, in 1988, in one year, I made thirteen films. I knew that, in the future, if I continued to do this, I would die. At least, I would quit films.
FE: There was a joke going around that, at the height of your popularity, you'd just come into a studio and sit down, and one film crew would film your face, and another your hands, and another your feet and so on... All for different movies!
CYF: (laughs) No, no, no.....! Just a joke! It's Impossible!
FE: TIGER ON THE BEAT, which was directed by Liu Chia Liang, is perhaps the only really mindless martial arts-actioner you've made. How difficult did you find it to do that kind of hands-on action, after so much gunplay?
CYF: Not really difficult. All the ideas for the action in that film belong to Liu Chia Liang. You know Liu Chia Liang can play all of the 'bing hey'...You know? 'Chinese weapons!' knives, spears.... He taught me a lot. He knows how to do tricks. You know the bat diao, the knife at the end? They use a wire to tie the knife to my finger, so I can twirl the knife like this... (he demonstrates, laughing uproariously)
FE: How did you find working with your co-star in TIGER ON THE BEAT, Conan Lee?
CYF: Lee Yun Bat is more gwailo. He's not Chinese! He's really like a Hollywood star. He's always.... (he mimes a sniffing action)
FE: On thing about Hong Kong movies is that women always get a hard time of it. In TIGER ON THE BEAT, there's one scene where you really beat the living daylights out of Li Chi. How do you feel about that kind of scene?
CYF: I feel sorry. I feel sad, but the audience like it...
FE: The men in the audience like it....
CYF: No, the whole audience like it. You know, Li Chi is from China, and she's proud of this. The whole of the Hong Kong citizens don't like her!
FE: So they like to see you beat her up?
CYF: Yes!
FE: Ai-yah. How come Li Chi is unpopular and the other busty Hong Kong actress, Amy Yip, has become a sex goddess?
CYF: Yip Chi May is more down to earth. She's going: "I'm a hooker! I'm a gai (a 'chicken')!...
FE: Well, she's going to appreciate you saying that in this interview...! One of your most successful films in Hong Kong was GOD OF GAMBLERS, in which you play the Do San, a super-gambler who, due to a head injury, becomes a slightly retarded idiot-savant. The film is very much reminiscent of Rain Man. Was your performance as the autistic version of the Do San inspired by Dustin Hoffman's performance in that film?
CYF: It's very similar, isn't it? GOD OF GAMBLERS is inspired by Rain Man, but it has lots of other things as well.... I saw Rain Man. I like it. If you say I am like Dustin Hoffman, I say "Thank you very much!" (laughs)
FE: The film that really made your name in the west was John Woo's THE KILLER. Which stars yourself and Danny Lee. I liked the film, but, when I saw it, I couldn't really see what all the fuss was about. It was good, but not that much better than films like BETTER TOMORROW and CITY ON FIRE. Why do you think that that was the one that crossed over, and the others didn't?
CYF: I don't know why. I prefer BETTER TOMORROW (part 1) more than THE KILLER. The only scene I really like in THE KILLER is the Dragon Boat chase, when I kill that man. That scene realy makes the film.
FE: It's a very chinese movie. Is it a surprise to you when people in the west relate to it so well?
CYF: I think so...
FE: I understand that THE KILLER will be remade in America, and that Richard Gere will play your part....
CYF: I think that, if Richard Gere plays my part in the film, the scene with the Dragon Boats would be different. Different thinking...
FE: This will be the first time that Hollywood has remade a Hong Kong film. Normally, it's the other way round. How do you think you'll feel, seeing someone else play a part you created?
CYF: I'll feel glad and happy, but I'll also feel sad also.
FE: Why?
CYF: Why? Why not ME? (laughs) Actually, Steven Spielberg saw a lot of old-fashioned Chinese movies, with all the magic and everything. He saw a lot. He caught a lot of ideas from them.
FE: John Carpenter made a film called BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA....
CYF: Lousy! That film was terrible...
FE: It's interesting to look at the range of films you've made, everything from action to comedy to romance. I don't think American actors tend to enjoy the same freedom. Clint Eastwood isn't going to make a piercing social commentary and Woody Allen isn't going to tote a Magnum...!
CYF: Yes. Right. I get to do everything!
FE: Of your films, do you prefer the action films or the comedies?
CYF: I prefer the serious films. I don't like most of the comedies.
FE: I liked AUTUMN'S TALE, the film you made with Cherie Chung for D&B..
CYF: I prefer something like CITY ON FIRE, PRISON ON FIRE, HONG KONG 1941, Ann Hui's BOAT PEOPLE.
FE: How many films have you made altogether?
CYF: Around eighty.
FE: Wow. TRIAD: INSIDE STORY was a Hong Kong version of THE GODFATHER. From your expression, though, I take it you don't like that film. Why?
CYF: I don't know how to say. At that time, I'm shooting three films together. None of them have my undivided schedule, my time. They just make these films to sell overseas and pick up money before they start shooting!
FE: I liked the poster for TRIADS, with this small man in a large throne..
CYF: I think the audience don't like to see me not play the Dai Lo (Big Brother). They want Chow Yun Fat to be a gunfighter, or a Dai Lo, or a Godfather. Something like that. They don't want me to be an ordinary citizen!
FE: Some people say that Sylvester Stallone's RAMBO movies make people go out and mow down passersby in the shopping mall. God knows what the same critics would say if they saw some of your movies... Do you go along with...... (sudden explosion of gunfire from the HARD BOILED location) Now was that timing, or what? (laughter) Is there a connection between violence on film and violence in reality?
CYF: I think so. I think so.
FE: Is it then the responsibility of filmmakers not to make violent films?
CYF: They (the film-makers) have to take the responsibility. Film education is very important in the 1990's, especially in Hong Kong.
FE: Do Chinese films have to be quite so violent? I remember a terrible scene in your film FLAMING BROTHERS in which one of the characters is forced to shoot his own little boy at point blank range. I thought: "Okay. Now that pushed the envelope..." (more gunfire. Chow Yun-Fat flinches)
CYF: I hate guns!
FE: That was worth getting on tape: "The Killer hates guns..!" Why do films have to be so over the top in terms of violence?
CYF: One thing that is important is the overseas market. The overseas people cannot pick up the Cantonese, so they mostly are not interested in the story, in the drama. They are interested in the action. Why are Kung Fu action movies so popular in the whole world? Because the people don't want the dialogue. They just want to see Jackie Chan in the movie. They just want to see the action. That's the reason for it...
FE: One thing I've always wondered about: You're a really good friend of John Woo, he's a Christian. How does a Christian make these kind of films?
CYF: It's like THE KILLER, the last shot in the church, he blows up The Virgin Mary!
FE: How can he do that?
CYF: I don't know. I never ask him!
FE: Actually, THE KILLER is a very Christian film, because it's about redemption from sin through blood sacrifice. Your character suffers throughout the film because he's sinned in the past.
CYF: Yes, yes..
FE: When you were making THE KILLER, did you think it was anything special?
CYF: No.
FE: Just another shoot-'em-up?
CYF: Yes. I prefer a more human drama. More than action. I prefer something like Jack Lemmon in THAT'S LIFE, or Gerard Depardieu in GREEN CARD, you know?
FE: Depardieu was a huge star in France long before he came to America. Has anyone from the U.S. approached you yet about making a film there?
CYF: No.
FE: What are the barriers against a Chinese actor working in America?
CYF: 'Barrier' hay mey-ah?
FE: A barrier is men-tay (problem)...
CYF: Men-tay. Men-tay is that, in Hollywood, the gwailo (westerners) protect themselves. You see John Lone, he can only play Chinese, like in THE LAST EMPEROR. Other roles, he cannot play.
FE: There was a film called THE MODERNS where he played what was pretty much a gwailo role, but that was about it...
CYF: Yes. He played a Frenchman, but that film was lousy...
FE: Who do you admire in terms of American film-makers?
CYF: Oh, a lot. A lot...
FE: The famous quote from you is that you thought DRIVING MISS DAISY was the kind of film you'd like to make, which must sound pretty funny to people who've only seen THE KILLER.
CYF: (laughing) Yes, I admire Coppola, Scorsese, Tony Scott, Sam Peckinpah...a lot of directors, Steven Spielberg...
FE: Now that you're not working so much, how does Chow Yun-Fat spend his free time? Is it difficult for you to go unnoticed in Hong Kong, this being such a small place?
CYF: For hiking? No! Lots of big mountains in Hong Kong.
FE: No, I mean in the street...
CYF: No! I can go everywhere! I even go to dai pai dong (cheap open air restaurants)!
FE: People don't come up to you saying: "Chow Yun-Fat! Sign my napkin!"?
CYF: People get used to seeing me! In Korea and Japan, they are more crazy, because these are new markets for me. In Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, people treat me as their friend.
FE: But it must be a heavy responsibility, because people do take you as their idol. Do you feel that you have to behace responsibly, to set a good example?
CYF: Yes, you have to do that. An actor can be a good example for the people. Also, my caracter is so homely. I don't like to go out! I hate night-clubs. I don't like discos. I like cooking! I like babies!
FE: So that's the real Chow Yun-Fat we see at the end of ONCE A THIEF?
CYF: Yes! I prefer the Hollywood style. Most of the people, after shooting, they come home and do the gardening! Some of the stars buy farms, and then go there after filming.
FE: Harrison Ford has a ranch in Wyoming..
CYF: Yes. Even Kevin Costner...
FE: So a film like ALL ABOUT AH LONG reflects the true Chow Yun-Fat more than gangster films do?
CYF: Yes, I prefer AH LONG more than.... (chow giggles and mimes gunplay, pointing to John Woo, who is busy directing in the background) .....But it's ho mow tan (very confusing)! The gun is more popular overseas, the drama is more popular in Hong Kong!
FE: Tell me about this film, HARD BOILED. What's you're character in this film?
CYF: Clint Eastwood: Dirty Harry.
FE: John showed me the Mifed promo the other day. I liked the scene where you light your cigarette from the fire...
CYF: No! That's not me! It's the kung fu director. He's inside now... (indicates the interior of the location) He's one of the martial arts sifu...
FE: Oh, is there some kung fu in this film?
CYF: Yes! He also plays a role.
FE: Are you fighting him in the film?
CYF: Yes! At the ending.
FE: Why should audiences look forward to this film? In what way will it be different from THE KILLER?
CYF: This film has no story! The story is very simple and easy! Sixty to seventy percent fighting all the time! (Chow laughs uproariously)
FE: What a hard sell! I see you're playing the clarinet in this film. A further string in your bow?
CYF: No! I just mime to some one else playing.
FE: Speaking of music, your singing career...
CYF: Oh, lousy....lousy.
FE: Frankly, you can't sing! Why embark on a singing career, then?
CYF: Fun! It's a lot of fun.
FE: Have you been successful?
CYF: Not yet, no. However, they pay me a lot of money, and I donate it to charity. The main purpose for making the records was for charity.
FE: When I was with Ringo Lam the other day, he complained that you had a lot of input in PRISN ON FIRE 2. I said maybe you wanted to be a director, and Ringo goes "Maybe he does.." Well, do you?
CYF: No.
FE: Why not? You've got so much experience of moviemaking.
CYF: I think that, in Hong Kong, being a director is too complicated. You have to worry about budget, the casting, the locations, the production...The director has to involve himself a lot because the support is not enough. I think team work is not at the standard that it is in America. They don't have good teamwork behind the director. In Hollywood, sometimes the director will even sit in another room, with a monitor and air-con, and sit there and go "Action"! That's all! They don't have to do anything! The first assistant or second assistant director will do it. Here, John Woo has to do everything...
FE: John's certainly looking very tired today...
CYF: Yeah. He looks through the camera. He helps make the props. He shows the actors how to do the action...
FE: It's too much like hard work. How about being a producer?
CYF: Like Michael Douglas, acting and producing? To be a big tycoon in Hollywood? There, yes, but in Hong Kong? I don't think so....
FE: Why does the Hong Kong film industry have so little respect for itself? You make so many good films here, but the industry doesn't seem to think of itself as producing a valid artform. It's just money, money, money...
CYF: I think that is the mentality of the Chinese.
FE: The Hong Kong Chinese, or all of them?
CYF: All of them all over the world! They don't respect each other. They hate each other. One thing I can tell you is that it's not just gwailo or Chinese, but the same in the whole world: Two friends, when they're both poor, can stick together very closely. Suddenly, one gets rich and they fall apart. Especially the Chinese, they don't like someone else to succeed.
FE: Before now, you have complained that, even though Hong Kong has been making films for forty years, there's no film library, not even a record of which films have been produced. Many people interpreted that as meaning that you plan to set up such a library yourself.
CYF: It's not my idea. It belongs to the whole film business here. I hope a library will be established. We still have to wait for the Urban Council to approve the budget and the location, because, once you set it up, you have to maintain the archive, and that takes a lot of money. They have the proposal and have sent it to the Council.
FE: What format will the films be stored in? Regular colour 35mm?
CYF: I think so, 35mm.
FE: So you'll need a pretty large, temperature-controlled environment. If we're going to send only one Chow Yun-Fat film into space for the aliens to watch, which on will it be?
CYF: I think A BETTER TOMORROW part one.
FE: And if we were going to destroy one of them, which one would it be?
CYF: So many.... (laughter, but not from Chow Yun-Fat)
FE: Maybe some of the blue movies...
CYF: Yes, all of them!
FE: I think the one where you ate the tiger shit, that gets my vote, for what it's worth. (Chow laughs uproariously) (I like that one - Ed)
CYF: That's a very funny film! Sometimes I play comedy, I go mad!, to make myself happy. Some things you can't, as an actor, play seriously. They're too awful! So, I try and make myself go crazy, to act with the tiger shit, to make the lousy expression to the audience... To masturbate myself through acting!
FE: Uh-huh. That film was like a reversal of MY FAIR LADY...
CYF: Yes, yes. Exactly.
FE: In THE WORLD'S GREATEST LOVER, you play a Mainland Chinese country bumpkin who gets turned into a Hong Kong socialite at the hands of Anita Mui. When I saw the film, the Chinese audience were killing themselves laughing, and I just didn't get any of it!
CYF: They were kind of 'in' jokes, you know.
FE: You've never really been to Europe to enjoy your celebrity there. I know you went to the Chicago Film Festival a couple of years ago. Caroline Vie was telling me that you were supposed to go to Paris for their film festival. You remember...?
CYF: Oh, yes...actually I've been to Paris many times..
FE: You filmed a lot of ONCE A THIEF there...
CYF: And before that, STORY OF ROSE.
FE: With Maggie Cheung. I saw that. Not a good film.
CYF: Not a good film. Lousy!
FE: Maybe that's the one we should destroy!
CYF: No, no, no. It was not that bad! The book, the story that the film is based on, was very popular in Hong Kong.
FE: You've been to Europe filming, but you've never been on a promotional tour for any of your films, or to any European film festivals...
CYF: I've been to Cannes.
FE: Really?
CYF: Yes, in 1984. Before BETTER TOMORROW Part One. I went with Ann Hui. It was THE STORY OF WU WEI. It was screening at the festival, so they invite Ann and me to the festival.
FE: Do you forsee going to any festivals next year to promote HARD BOILED?
CYF: Depends on Golden Princess, my company.
FE: A lot of your fans in England would love to see you in person.
CYF: (laughing) In England?
FE: Don't you believe you have a lot of fans in England?
CYF: I don't think so!
FE: You'd be surprised. Speaking of fans, you never struck me as the kind of guy that would start a fan club for himself... (Chow laughs)
CYF: Actually, I don't have a Fan Club. It's the Friends of Chow Yun-Fat. I send them T-shirts and souvenirs..
FE: Do you relate to people wearing your face on their T-shirts? Do you understand the mentality behind that?
CYF: It wasn't my idea. I didn't want to set up a fan club, but my wife and manager say "You have to do it!", because you have to have some contact with the fans. You have to give them some message that they can contact you. Even the T-shirt, you have to give them. I think that, if I set up a fan club, I have to give them a lot of love. I have to stay in contact with them. Then I feel better. Not just: They send money, I send them a T-shirt. Then, I'd feel sorry.
FE: If you were going to join someone's fan club, whose would it be?
CYF: Robert DeNiro's!
FE: I'll send you the details.
CYF: (laughing) Oh thank you!
FE: What would be your message to all your fans....sorry....your friends in England?
CYF: I would say "Thank You".
FE: And that you hope to see them soon?
CYF: Maybe in two years time! I could bring my kids...
FE: Chow Yun-Fat, thanks for taking the time out to talk to me.
CYF: Thank you! It's been a pleasure.
IN THE BACKGROUND: The background image is (a grayscaled, contrast-reduced version of) the cover of Bey Logan's excellent book, Hong Kong Action Cinema, described on my CYF: God of Actors page.
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